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Nicole Gaudiano's March 9 article on Sen. Chris Coons' vote not to confirm Debo Adegbile to head the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice missed the central issue. It is not an argument between police and civil rights organizations, but society's commitment to the right to effective legal counsel, a standard that enhances the security and freedom of all, including we who consider ourselves law-abiding.

Lawyers defend clients who might be unpopular, miserable or antisocial. Delaware judges and other top legal officials have, during their lives in practice, defended accused polluters, swindlers and killers. Such has been our nation's tradition since John Adams, at considerable personal sacrifice, defended the British gunmen in the Boston Massacre.

Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner's death in 1981 led to 30 years' of work by detectives, prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges, resulting in life without parole for Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose post-trial preening earned him followers with no idea of what happened at 13th and Locust streets. Adegbile worked on a brief arguing that procedural irregularities did not warrant the death penalty. His team's success meant Abu-Jamal will die in prison, not on a gurney.

A lawyer, who represents the accused or the convicted, does not countenance anti-social or criminal behavior. He puts the prosecution to its proof, using all his efforts to make sure no conviction based on flimsy evidence, nor sentence arising from irregular procedures, should stand. We all benefit from such advocacy, whether the accused is a banker, educator, clergy, public official, indigent drifter, attorney or police officer. That kind of commitment is what we each expect from our own lawyer, even when the stakes are less urgent.

This fundamental principle of a free society should not be compromised by echoes from Philadelphia culture wars of 30 years ago.